Slack legislators delay House plenary meetings<\/p>\n
Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta<\/p>\n
The House of Representatives (DPR) failed to a hold a plenary
\nmeeting on Monday because less than half of its members showed
\nup.<\/p>\n
The legislators were slated to endorse last week's House
\nselection of Miranda S. Goeltom as senior deputy governor of Bank
\nIndonesia.<\/p>\n
The House has become notorious for a high absenteeism rate,
\nbut Monday was new low for plenary sessions, with only 213
\nmembers showing up out of 497 House members.<\/p>\n
The latest failure came just five days after the House's
\ndeliberation body (Bamus) failed to convene last Thursday due
\nalso to poor attendance.<\/p>\n
It was the 16th Bamus meeting that failed to take place in the
\npast year alone.<\/p>\n
\"I'm really upset by this problem. The House members should
\ndemonstrate to the public their sincere desire to perform well,
\nespecially at the end of their term in office,\" said deputy House
\nspeaker Tosari Widjaja of the United Development Party (PPP)
\nfaction who presided over the abortive meeting.<\/p>\n
The plenary meeting was also supposed to endorse the
\nreplacement of a member of the People's Consultative Assembly
\n(MPR). Tosari said that the endorsement would be delayed until at
\nleast June 21.<\/p>\n
He suggested that leaders of all nine factions in the House
\ntake the initiative to improve the situation by replacing their
\n\"lazy\" members. He said their poor performance had affected the
\nentire image of the House.<\/p>\n
Tosari's wishes will not likely be fulfilled as not even all
\nfaction leaders showed up on Monday. Tjahjo Kumolo of the
\nIndonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and Achmad
\nSumargono of the Crescent Star Party (PBB) were among the absent
\nlegislators.<\/p>\n
The poor attendance of the legislators had been blamed for the
\nfailure of the House to fulfill its legislation target in every
\ntwo-month sitting period.<\/p>\n
With less than three months left before a new group of
\nlegislators takes over, there are more than 40 bills backlogged
\nthat need to be endorsed.<\/p>\n
According to Tosari, the House leaders and the leaders of nine
\nfactions would meet on Tuesday to discuss the possibility of
\nmaking public the names of the truant legislators.<\/p>\n
\"The lazy legislators must be at least 'morally punished' by
\nthe people. This will make clear distinctions between the lazy
\nlegislators and the hard-working ones,\" he said, adding that
\nseveral legislators were currently working on as key campaign
\nstrategists for presidential candidates.<\/p>\n
Separately, head of the House's plenary meeting bureau Achmad
\nJuned said that this current spate of absenteeism was a new
\nrecord for the House of Representatives (DPR).<\/p>\n
\"It is the first House plenary meeting that failed to reach a
\nquorum,\" he said.<\/p>\n
============================================<\/p>\n
Factions Seats Presence Percentage<\/p>\n
--------------------------------------------<\/p>\n
PDI-P 152 53 34%<\/p>\n
Golkar 120 41 34%<\/p>\n
PPP 57 23 40%<\/p>\n
PKB 56 23 41%<\/p>\n
Reform (PAN, PK) 41 18 43%<\/p>\n
Military\/Police 38 35 92%<\/p>\n
PBB 13 7 53%<\/p>\n
KKI 11 6 54%<\/p>\n
PDU 9 7 77%<\/p>\n
--------------------------------------------<\/p>\n
497 213 ----------<\/p>\n
============================================<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/slack-legislators-delay-house-plenary-meetings-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }